A Christmas Surprise

³⁰The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ ³⁴Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ 

Luke 1:30-34 

I have a psychologist friend whose specialty is working with youth battling addictions.  He once told me that he thought that the number one addiction in the world is the addiction to outcomes.  By that he meant our tendency to think that things have to turn out a certain way before we can be happy.  With this way of thinking we set up certain minimal requirements before we are going to allow ourselves happiness. 

This can happen to me at Christmas as I tend to think that a happy Christmas requires the whole family being together.  Or I think that a happy Christmas means everyone being in reasonably good health, and getting what they hoped for.

But what does that mean for a Christmas when the whole family can’t come together, a Christmas when the economy isn’t so good, or a Christmas with discord among believers?    What does that mean for a Christmas when things don’t go as planned or hoped?  Is it possible to take Christmas just as it comes and be joyful?  Is it still possible to rejoice in the day the Lord has made? 

I think of that first Christmas and how everyone’s plans are horribly messed up.  A beautiful young teen turns up inexplicably pregnant.  Wedding plans made when bride and groom were mere toddlers are hastily scrapped.  Oh, the heartache, disappointment, and confusion!   But young Mary takes it as it comes and says:

‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ (Luke 1:38).

I often think about how the Christmas stories we love to tell are stories about plans gone awry.  There’s Tiny Tim, crippled and dying, in “The Christmas Carol.”    There’s George Bailey’s profound despair in “It’s A Wonderful Life.”   And who could forget the penniless young couple, madly in love, but without any money to buy gifts in O’Henry’s, “The Gift of the Magi.”   And then there’s a little baby, on a cold night, pushed out to a cattle barn because there is no room for him in the motel.  Here are stories of hope and joy in the midst of struggle and want.  Here are stories of fulfillment and meaning.

And for us and our stories this Christmas, we may not get the outcomes we wanted.  But there can be joy and wonder regardless, because He is still God-with-us, Immanuel.

Surprise us Lord!

Tim Smith

• For the Water from Rock daily Advent reflections see website, WaterfromRock.org, “Advent Devotionals” .
• Add to your Advent celebration by joining us Tuesday, December 1, 8, 15, at 7:00 P.M., at the Franciscan Renewal Center for “The Gospel According to Handel’s Messiah.” 

Awe-inspiring and sublime, Handel’s majestic Messiah has thrilled listeners for more than 250 years.  In these Tuesday classes we will delve into Messiah’s text that is taken from the literal words of scripture and discover the historical and biblical background of the texts that inspired the music.  This will surely add to your joy and this Advent!

• Weekly Bible Class on  ROMANS 8:  THE PINNACLE OF GRACE

Every Tuesday, 11:00 a.m., at the Franciscan Renewal Center

Bible scholars have described the eighth chapter of Romans as “the mountain peak of Scripture,” and the “chapter of chapters for the Christian.”  Another commentator has said, “If Holy Scripture was a ring, and the Epistle to the Romans a precious stone, chapter eight would be the sparkling point of the jewel!”  You’re invited to join us in an exploration of Romans eight and the heights of God’s grace!

Thinking about Thanking

²⁰Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; ²¹for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.                 Romans 1:20-21 

This week we observe a distinctly American holiday.  While many nations observe Christmas and Easter, only in America do we set aside a day to offer up thanks to our Creator.  From our nation’s earliest days at Jamestown and Plymouth, we have felt it appropriate and essential as a people to pause and acknowledge our absolute dependence upon God.  And as well, through proclamation of legislatures, governors, and presidents, we have been called upon to offer up thanksgiving in times of peace and calamity. 

In today’s text, the Apostle Paul sets forth the consequences of not giving thanks to God or honoring him.  As Paul outlines the moral history of the human race, he notes that when people do not “give thanks” to God they “become futile in their thinking,” and their minds are “darkened.”  I reflect upon our recent history and wonder at the darkness and futile thinking that seem so pervasive in our culture.

The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that the word “think” and the word “thank” both come from the same Proto-European root.   The Dictionary traces the etymology of the two words and demonstrates that in Old Saxon, German, Norse, Danish, Frisian, and Dutch, there was an interconnectedness of giving thanks and  thinking.   Somehow they knew that to give thanks is to think right, and to stop and think leads to thankfulness.

I am encouraged by the work of Dr. Robert Emmons, who is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology.  Admitting that scientists are latecomers to the idea of gratitude, Dr. Emmons and various researchers are demonstrating the positive effects of the attitude of gratitude.  They are finding in all kinds of experimental comparisons, that people who keep a daily gratitude journal feel better about their lives, report fewer physical symptoms, and are more optimistic. 

In one sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, they found that a “21 day gratitude intervention” resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of connectedness to others, more optimism, and better sleep for the control group.  The old song was right after all  – counting blessings is better than counting sheep!

But in the end, Thanksgiving isn’t about us.  And the attitude of gratitude is not about how well it serves us.  It’s all about the one simple fact that God is God, worthy to be praised.  As usual, the old psalmist says it well: 

¹It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
   to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
²to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
   and your faithfulness by night,
³to the music of the lute and the harp,
   to the melody of the lyre.
⁴For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
   at the works of your hands I sing for joy. 

Psalm 92:1-4

Something to think about this Thanksgiving.

Tim Smith

• ROMANS 8:  THE PINNACLE OF GRACE

11:00a.m. – Noon

Bible scholars have described the eighth chapter of Romans as “the mountain peak of Scripture,” and the “chapter of chapters for the Christian.”  Another commentator has said, “If Holy Scripture was a ring, and the Epistle to the Romans a precious stone, chapter eight would be the sparkling point of the jewel!”  You’re invited to join us in an exploration of Romans eight and the heights of God’s grace! 

• EXPLORING ECCLESIASTES:  A BOOK FOR OUR TIME

7:00 P.M.  – 8:00 P.M     

The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the Bible’s most enigmatic, yet most relevant and beautiful books.  Ecclesiastes asks the hard questions about the meaning of life, grief and loss, pleasure and profit, money and accumulation, and applies godly wisdom to everyday realities.  You’re invited to join us in this study of what is most important in life and how we can live more rich and fulfilling lives.

It’s All About Mercy

³²“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. ³³And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that. ³⁴And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ lend to ’sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:32-36 

I was brought up in what was called, “The Holiness Movement.”  Our favorite text of the Bible was Leviticus 11:44, where the Lord God says, “Be holy, because I am holy.”  We knew that the basic meaning of the word, “holy,” was to be “different than,” or, “distinct from,” and “set apart.”  Thus, we were devoted and quite serious about being different, by not doing what other people did, or going to places they went.  For us, this was holy living.  Being holier than others meant carefully holding to the list of rules.  And with this went the almost daily calculation of how we were doing compared to how others were doing in keeping the rules. 

You can imagine my surprise then, when I began to discover that the Lord Jesus doesn’t play by the rules!   I began to see that Jesus thinks of holy living, or being set apart, in a quite different way.  Jesus thinks of holy living as being different in precisely the way that he sees the heavenly Father as being different. 

In today’s text, Jesus says that the heavenly Father is different from others in that he doesn’t love the way others do.  He doesn’t  love just those who love him.  Even sinners do that.  No, the Most High even loves his enemies!  And he doesn’t just love those who give back to him in return.  He loves and does good to people, expecting nothing in return.

What a truly different way of understanding God that the Son of God reveals.  And what a different and distinct way of life Jesus himself demonstrates.  Jesus never counts himself a part of any holiness movement per se, or never so much as quotes the verse about being holy because God is holy.  Rather, with a tender turn of phrase, Jesus implores, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”   That’s the way to be different from others!  Be different in the way that the heavenly Father is different:  generous in forgiveness, extravagant in grace, and merciful in keeping accounts. 

When religious leaders censure Jesus for hanging out with sinners, Jesus replies:  Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13).  

I’m a slow learner, but I think I’m beginning to get it.  It’s all about mercy, isn’t it!  How about you and me, let’s start a “The Mercy Movement.” 

Mercy and peace,

Tim Smith 

• ROMANS 8:  THE PINNACLE OF GRACE

11:00a.m. – Noon

Bible scholars have described the eighth chapter of Romans as “the mountain peak of Scripture,” and the “chapter of chapters for the Christian.”  Another commentator has said, “If Holy Scripture was a ring, and the Epistle to the Romans a precious stone, chapter eight would be the sparkling point of the jewel!”  You’re invited to join us in an exploration of Romans eight and the heights of God’s grace! 

• EXPLORING ECCLESIASTES:  A BOOK FOR OUR TIME

7:00 P.M.  – 8:00 P.M   

The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the Bible’s most enigmatic, yet most relevant and beautiful books.  Ecclesiastes asks the hard questions about the meaning of life, grief and loss, pleasure and profit, money and accumulation, and applies godly wisdom to everyday realities.  You’re invited to join us in this study of what is most important in life and how we can live more rich and fulfilling lives.

A Push Back

Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  Hebrews 13:7 

I’m not claiming that it was any kind of vision, but Saturday night as I was turning  in bed, somehow I remembered a Sunday school teacher I had as a boy.  Where did that slender fragment of memory come from, I wondered.  But before I could get back to sleep it occurred to me that I owed that teacher a lot.   With not a lot of education she taught me faithfully about Jesus.   She is gone now, but I remember her.

Then I woke early Sunday morning and thought, “This is All Saints Day.”  And I wondered if perhaps it was God in the night nudging me to remember on All Saints Day that Sunday School teacher who had faithfully served.   And not just to remember her but so many others like her who have helped me along the Way.  

And now it’s Monday morning and I’m wondering again  –   I’m wondering, “Why did we give more thought and preparation to Halloween, or “All Hallows Even” than we did to All Saints Day, or for Reformation Sunday, on the same day?

Why this inversion of values?  Why this trivialization of our godly heroes?  Is this the cost of being immersed in a postmodern culture that focuses more on ghost, darks spirits, and Bernie Madoff masks, than it does in celebrating greatness?  Is this the church yielding ground to a culture that makes celebrities of people, not for achievement, but only for being known? 

Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and writer, helps me a lot this morning as he writes:  “The history of mankind is the history of its great men: the important thing is to find these out, clean the dirt from them, and place them on their proper pedestals.” 

I want to push back against our culture, against its nihilism and coarsening of values.   I must find out the heroes and celebrate lives of faithfulness, duty and honor.  Likewise, today’s scripture text calls us to remember such lives, and to consider the “outcome of their way of life”.   Let us “imitate their faith” and dare to follow in their steps!

I am finding it helpful to reflect on the wisdom of the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus.  I pass on these sage words to you for your consideration. 

Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers in their generations.  The Lord apportioned to them great glory, his majesty from the beginning.  There were those who ruled in their kingdoms, and were men renowned for their powers, giving counsel by their understanding, and proclaiming prophecies; leaders of the people in their deliberations and in understanding of learning for the people, wise in their words  of instruction; those who composed musical tunes, and set forth verses in writing; rich men furnished with resources, living peaceably in their habitations – all these were honored in their generations, and were the glory of their times.  There are some of them who have left a name, so that men declare their praise.  And there are some who have no memorial, who have perished as though they had not lived; they have become as though they had not been born, and so have their children after them.  But these were men of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten; their posterity will continue for ever, and their glory will not be blotted out.  Their bodies were buried in peace, and their name live to all generations.  Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10, 13-14

Let us lift up our praise of such people, give thanks for them, and follow hard after them.  The world doesn’t run on the celebrity of the day but rather on great souls such as these!

Tim Smith

       TUESDAY CLASSES AT THE        

FRANSICAN RENEWAL CENTER 

CLASSES THIS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, WILL BE IN THE ST. BARBARA ROOM

NEW CLASS BEGINS: Tuesday, 11:00 a.m. to Noon

• ROMANS 8:  THE PINNACLE OF GRACE

11:00a.m. – Noon

Bible scholars have described the eighth chapter of Romans as “the mountain peak of Scripture,” and the “chapter of chapters for the Christian.”  Another commentator has said, “If Holy Scripture was a ring, and the Epistle to the Romans a precious stone, chapter eight would be the sparkling point of the jewel!”  You’re invited to join us in an exploration of Romans eight and the heights of God’s grace! 

• EXPLORING ECCLESIASTES:  A BOOK FOR OUR TIME

7:00 P.M.  – 8:00 P.M     

The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the Bible’s most enigmatic, yet most relevant and beautiful books.  Ecclesiastes asks the hard questions about the meaning of life, grief and loss, pleasure and profit, money and accumulation, and applies godly wisdom to everyday realities.  You’re invited to join us in this study of what is most important in life and how we can live more rich and fulfilling lives.